Getting Started

If you're coming to this page I'm assuming that you are just getting started in genealogy. Welcome. I'll briefly outline the steps in tracing your family an below provide some resources for learning more.

Collect as much information as you can from your living relatives.

Record it in some fashion as you'll want to refer back to it as you carry on.

Try to collect and record at least three facts to prove a relationship.

Work backward from birth to marriage to birth, supporting that information with other sources.

Using a family tree program to record your data helps you track your collected information and your growing family. Many people talk about family stories as being the most imporant thing for them, most of these programs provide notes areas to store these stories. They also makes it easy to print trees when you need them.

Please be wary of information or contacts you make over the internet. Check your facts and don't just assume information fits with your family.

Cyndi Howells maintains the largest collection of genealogy related links on the internet. In addition to her specific resources for beginners you can find everything else at http://www.cyndislist.com/.

Don't be afraid to make use of the LDS church's libraries and website. They have extensive collections of useful information, and make it freely available to anyone who wishes to trace their family history. Their main internet search facility is at familysearch.org.

Below is a video provided by Family Search, more videos can be found on their Youtube page.